Fine Dining restaurants often grapple with the Open for Lunch dilemma because instinctively one can make the assumption that there is an underused asset wasting away. Most who venture from dinner only service into the open for lunch arena discover to their economic chagrin that there is not enough traffic to justify being open. The additional labor cost of a full shift necessary to implement a partial or full menu is rarely recouped. The caveat of course is that if one has significant private dining events to justify a staff at lunch time, then being open for lunch is adjunct. The addition of wait staff is incrementally justified if the kitchen staff is already present and working on prepping and executing a private lunch event. The basic problem is that most restaurateurs who first try the open for lunch mantra attempt to utilize existing staff in a staggered schedule format, adding only minimal additional staffers. This strategy has the effect of stressing out all the staff as they will be called upon to stretch well beyond physical limits in an ill-fated attempt to minimize cost. Lunch at best represents 10-15% of dinner revenue and too often utilizes precious resources in fashion that is not optimal.
The best alternative for the dilemma is to open earlier for dinner, perhaps 3pm. This affords those who seek a late lunch and those who seek an early dinner the opportunity to sample your offerings.
